Book Club “Ill-Fated Fortune”
For May, we chose the first book in the Magical Fortune Cookie series, Ill-Fated Fortune. We had seen Jennifer J. Chow on a panel at a mystery convention and loved hearing how she had a magical rabbit involved with this series, as well as recipes for some delicious treats.
With the mother-daughter relationship a key factor in the book as they ran a bakery together, it seemed like a great pick for the month that Mother’s Day falls. We also decided that we shouldn’t pile all our magical books next to October.
Book
Ill-Fated Fortune by Jennifer J. Chow
Description:
Felicity Jin grew up literally hanging onto Mom’s apron strings in their magical bakery in the quaint town of Pixie, California. Her mother’s enchanted baked goods, including puffy pineapple buns and creamy egg tarts, bring instant joy to all who consume them. Felicity has always been hesitant in the kitchen herself after many failed attempts, but a takeout meal gone wrong inspires her to craft some handmade fortune cookies.
They become so popular that Felicity runs out of generic fortunes and starts making her own personalized predictions. When one customer’s ill-fated fortune results in his murder, Felicity’s suspiciously specific fortune has the police focusing on her as the main culprit. Now Felicity must find a way to turn her luck around and get cleared from suspicion.
Club
Snack suggestions:
This book includes recipes, and we heartily recommend following the one to create your own fortune cookies!
We had so much fun writing fortunes for each other and placing them in our homemade cookies. It was also fun to have an activity while we discussed the book. The results might not have looked magical, but they tasted delicious, and our messages made us laugh.
We would also recommend serving Chinese Food as a meal. (Hopefully, it’s better than the food at Foo Fusion!)
You can buy ready-made fortune cookies too.
We bought some for references points for the ones we were making (and as backups in case things went awry.)
We also served some Pineapple Buns like in the book!
Check out Cozy Crimes’ book club questions that can be used for any mystery.
Here are our questions targeted to Ill-Fated Fortune:
1. How did magical realism play into this culinary mystery?
2. How did Felicity’s ancestry play into her life and affect the story?
3. What did you think of Felicity’s investigative style? How did she go about solving the murder case and finding answers to how her powers worked?
4. What were your thoughts on Detective Sun? Was she justified in suspecting the people she did throughout the investigation?
5. How would you describe Felicity and Kelvin’s relationship? How does it differ from the Fortune Cookie King’s long-term relationship?
6. Which suspects did you have sympathy for? Did you have any sympathy for the Fortune Cookie King?
7. What did you suspect was happening behind the scenes of the Smiley Fortunes factory?
8. Do you believe Whiskers is the Moon Rabbit? What do you think of the bunny?
9. How does the rivalry between Pixie and Fresno affect the residents?
10. If you had the Jin family's power of infusing joy into food, what would be the special item that you bake? What is the significance of that food?
